The Ultimate Ubuntu Customization Guide!

[Dark Star]

^^ i already installed it . SAme problem

 

[ChaiTan3]

kiba dock gives the transparency only if u have beryl or compiz installed.
i just tested what happens to kiba dock if i disable beryl...
the icon's background becomes black in colour..
so u may have to install beryl or compiz for that

 

[praka123]

isnt it that u may remove beryl/old compiz completely before trying compiz-fusion

 

[infra_red_dude]

ok i'm reviving this thread again. guess people haf problems wid kiba dock. you may try installing avant window navigator. here are the instructions:

*** this is for ubuntu 7.04 ***

open terminal and execute these.

to edit your apt sources:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add these lines to the bottom:

## Avant Window Navigator
deb *download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/ feisty avant-window-navigator
deb-src *download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/ feisty avant-window-navigator

type this in a terminal:

wget *download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

now to install AWN:

note: awm is still not completely stable. it may or may not work for you.

for AWN SVN type:

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-svn

affinity requires tracker to work properly. type:

sudo apt-get install tracker

install affinity (stable) now:

sudo apt-get install affinity

OR

for affinity SVN type:

sudo apt-get install affinity-svn

thats it! launch AWM from applications>accessories

 

[infra_red_dude]

ok here i am again wid some AWN customisation to make it look like leopard's dock.

1) change the background
press alt+f2 to bring up the run dialog and type "gconf-editor" press enter. now navigate to app>avant windows navigator>bar. on the RHS, change the bar angle to 45 and icon offset to 18. the bar height adjusts the size of the dock. i use 35. then enable the render pattern. experiment wid these values till u get something wid which you are satisfied.

2) to change the recycle bin icon
goto ~/.themes/<theme name>/<icon size or scalable>/places. now make 2 symbolic links of empty and full trash icons wid the names: "gnome-stock-trash.png" (which has the empty trash icon) and "gnome-stock-trash-full.png" (which has the trash full icon)

restart awn to apply these changes. awn will now look something like this:
*img521.imageshack.us/img521/8053/awnhq5.png


*****************************************************************

this is for ppl who want an extremely lightweight dock (but they don't haf an exhaustive feature set). there are 2 lightweight docs. i'm attaching the .deb here.

1) simdock (the dock in samlinux)

*rapidshare.com/files/48061132/simdock_1.2_i386.deb.html

(you may hafta install 2 more packages from the repos to solve dependencies.)

here is how it looks: *img521.imageshack.us/img521/9305/simdockeq5.png

2) wbar

*rapidshare.com/files/48061165/wbar_1.2-1_i386.deb.html

(the full customisation/control can be obtained by editing the /usr/share/wbar/dot.wbar file, this is not very much customisable rite now)

here is how it looks: *img217.imageshack.us/img217/9794/wbarvo0.png

 

[abhinav_bipnesh]

thx for such a good tute

 

[Dark Star]

Thanks ird for awesome addition

 

[tgpraveen]

thx. for nice tut yaar. but i have a specific requiement i use 7.04 ubuntu and i want a dock as a side bar

as the topa and bottom panels i dont want to disturb but want my app. shortcuts as a sidebar. so pls tell how i can customise awn or kiba-dock as a side bar?

 

[praka123]

why dont ya try gimmie(new panel type)

 

[infra_red_dude]

@tgpraveen

well, i'm afraid neither of the 3 haf prominent settings to make it as a sidebar. dig in a bit and u can surely make it a sidebar. i'll try to look into it.

regarding kiba dock, i've stopped using it. so i can't comment on it.

 

[tgpraveen]

@ infra red dude

ok thx for the reply. do tell me when u hav something

 

[Dark Star]

Here you go Sidebar *www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Sidebar+Screenlet+(Vista'ish+look)?content=63172

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ thanks for the link, shashwat

btw, i was going thru these posts. i'm sorry i've forgottn to mention that kiba dock and avant window manager will work only if a composite mananger (like compiz, beryl, compiz-fusion) is install. tho who don't haf it can use simdock or wbar.

also this is the customisability of linux. after all the customisations this is how my desktop looks now:

*img508.imageshack.us/img508/4816/screenshotum1.th.jpg

.....click, click, click,click (system>prefs>theme>human theme) and now my desktop looks like this:

*img245.imageshack.us/img245/452/screenshot1bc6.th.png

no system files to replace or hack, no meddling around anything, no uninstall issues, no worries i'm back to the default look! this is the only reason why i'm not installing the mac menubar hack. cos that requires me to replace some gtk libs. wid this kinda customisation whenever i want i can give a mac osx, vista, beos or any other look. u name and i haf it. when i'm bored i click 4 times and there's my ubuntu back

ps: i found out that i'm not able to get the top gnome bar to be completely translucent coz of the theme. this setting (the ubuntu menu and tray not being transperent/lucent) has been put into the gtk theme settings file. i'm trying to compare the gtkrc to other themes. lets see if i can trace it. any help wud be appreciated

****************************************************************
this is what i'm trying to do.

i presently haf this in the leopard theme:
*img172.imageshack.us/img172/8391/halftransparented7.png

i messed around wid panel.rc, edited whatever i could and got this:
*img172.imageshack.us/img172/4478/threequartertransparentqa9.png

but i wanna make my panel like this so that it integrates well wid this theme (this is from a different theme):
*img187.imageshack.us/img187/5691/fulltransparentix1.png

i know its there somewhere in gtkrc or panel.rc. help wud be appreciated

 

[Dark Star]

tho who don't haf it can use simdock or wbar.

Plz spread some light over it

 

[Dark Star]

A small how to on Simdock There are 2 ways by which you can install it. Simdock is a dock for those who are on low system specs and wanna run dock without berly / compiz.

1. Download : - SourceForge.net: SimDock
2. unzip the zip file and copy the folder in /home/<user name>
3. Then open terminal and type this cd /home/<user name>/simdock
4. Then type ./configure [ Note: You must have G++ with extras installed else compiling wil stop ]
5. Then type make.
6. Then after the step finishes type sudo make install.

Note : You can get this error

checking for wx-config... no
configure: error:
                wxWidgets must be installed on your system.

                Please check that wx-config is in path, the directory
                where wxWidgets libraries are installed (returned by
                'wx-config --libs' or 'wx-config --static --libs' command)
                is in LD_LIBRARY_PATH or equivalent variable and
                wxWidgets version is 2.8.0 or above.

To get out of this error type this

sudo apt-get install libwxgtk2.8-dev

Now thats a complicated 1 So if you are not into Compiling and all get the .deb file from here Application Information
Click on 32 /64 bit depending on your OS Double Click and Install ..

Now the dock gets installed no need to on Berly for that If you need berly dock read 2nd page of the guide

Here what my desktop looks after this install

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/large/3874_8cprp/Screenshot.png​

Now thats @ 256 Mb and onboard GPu.. Guess at more what Linux can do hyeah:

Special thanks to Open Source guys out here

 

[praka123]

@shashwath:dont u have simdock.deb available

 

[cynosure]

^This is what I thought, if simdock is famous then there should be a .deb package.

@Shashwath: Man you now have two methods to install. Source + Debian installtion package.

Found it at www.getdeb.net. Exact location -> *www.getdeb.net/download.php?release=1217&fpos=0

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ folks, look above, post #45. i've already posted the simdock deb in my prev. posts. why did u ppl break ur heads compiling and then searching for debs??

@shashwat
sorry bro, was busy since 2 days so i cudn't post much abt simdock.

 

[Dark Star]

^^ oops .. our bad ohh my bad thanks dude btw how is my current desktop Saw the upper full transparent panel

 

[phreak0ut]

Sweet! I liked it!